Triangle
by Animaltalker
Summary: As John is preparing to go out on a big date with Casey someone from his past unexpectedly returns. Will he remain true to his new love or be tempted to return to his old love? Author's Note: Chapter 1 has been revised to attempt to lessen Alex's OOC
1. Chapter 1

It was the Friday before Valentine's, John had decided to take Casey out for a big evening on the town; dinner, a Broadway show, dessert afterward, and then well, whatever she wanted. He actually hoped they would end up spending the weekend together. He was running late because of a case, and so had asked her to meet him at his place. He'd just finished changing into a grey shirt and a black brushed-velvet jacket when his doorbell rang.

"Just a second babe," he called as he made his way to the door.

He threw open the door and then nearly fell over in shock.

"Alex," –

"Hi John! Wow, don't you look great?" Alex said.

John stood in the open doorway and made no move to invite Alex into his apartment.

"Uh, Can I come in?" she asked hesitantly.

"No, I'm going out," he answered curtly.

"Meeting the gang from SVU?" Alex asked hopefully.

"No, I have a date," he answered harshly.

"Oh."

"Look, what did you expect. You let me think you were dead for a year and a half. When I finally learned you were alive, I find out that Olivia and Elliot knew all along that you were in Witness Protection. You told them, but not me, and then when you come back to testify, you don't spend any time with me. You're off again and don't come back for another year," he recited the details of the last few years bitterly and she couldn't do anything but stand there and take in his angry words.

"So now what, you're back for good, are you? Do you think you can just waltz in here, and we'll pick up where we left off? Sorry Alex, that's not how it works. Now if you don't mind, I'd really rather you weren't here when my date arrived."

"That would be rather awkward for you, wouldn't it?" Alex said, she turned on her heel and walked rapidly away, unwilling to let John see how much his words had hurt her.

John closed his apartment door, breathing hard. He walked over to his bar and poured himself a drink of vodka. He downed it and tried to calm himself.

Alex knew what she was about to do would not classify as normal behavior, but she couldn't help herself, she had to know whom John was dating. She parked her car near his apartment building's main entrance but just out of sight, so she could see him leave with his date.

The next knock on John's door was Casey. She sensed something was wrong, but decided to say nothing about it. She told herself it was probably just the case he'd been working, and hopefully an evening on the town together would solve things. If not, then she'd smooth things out later in bed.

"Damn!" she said out loud to herself, as she saw Casey come out of the building on John's arm. Casey looked radiant in a royal blue velvet dress with a large white satin collar, her strawberry red hair done up like a starlet's. John hailed a town car and off they went.

Alex sat for a moment, stunned. All she could think was, 'that pretty little bitch has stolen everything that was mine. She has my job and my lover.' Frustrated and angry, Alex jammed her car into gear and drove away from John's apartment complex fast enough to risk getting a ticket. She had to talk to someone, and she knew just who.

Olivia turned the TV on, trying to find something worth watching on a Friday night. She quickly realized she would either be watching something she'd prerecorded or maybe surfing the Internet. 'God,' she thought 'I'm turning into a real loser, home on a Friday night.' Just as she'd made that depressing self-evaluation, her doorbell rang. She hopped up quickly with the hopeful thought of some company for the evening.

"Alex," she said with a note of surprise, when she saw her old friend standing at her door. She knew Alex was suppose to be returning to Manhattan, now that all the people who could threaten her life had either died or been sent to prison, but she hadn't known when she would return. "Come in."

"Thanks," Alex said shakily.

"What's wrong?" Olivia asked, guiding Alex into her apartment, and taking her coat and things from her. "Can I get you something?"

Alex nodded, and Olivia got her a glass of brandy. Once Alex had had a few sips of the brandy, she began telling Olivia about her meeting with John and her little surveillance job. Olivia stayed silent just letting Alex get it all out. Aside from wanting to let Alex get the whole story out without interruption, Olivia was torn. She was a friend to all three people in this situation, and she didn't want to see any of them get hurt, yet she couldn't see how else it could come out.

"Olivia what am I going to do? I want him back," she said simply.

"I don't know Alex. You can't force him to change his mind or his heart," Olivia said.

"I know and he's so angry, so hurt. I made a terrible mistake not letting him know about the Witness Protection Program, but I didn't think I could see him and still be strong enough to leave," she tried to explain her actions.

"You could have told me or Elliot to let him know. It was heart-breaking to watch him grieving for you," Olivia told Alex, and immediately regretted it, as she watched her very strong friend teeter on the verge of tears.

"God, and I wasn't even faithful to him," Alex choked out through the tears she was still trying to hold back.

"Alex you can't beat yourself up like this. You had no idea if you would ever be able to come back." Alex nodded her head, but Olivia wasn't sure she really agreed.

"How long has he been seeing her?" Alex asked, unable to say Casey's name.

"I'm not sure. They went public when he got shot this fall, but I think they may have been together before that," Olivia said.

"How serious are they?" Alex wanted to know.

"John said something about taking Casey to Maryland for Passover to meet his family," Olivia said.

Alex's eyes grew large, but she didn't say anything for a while. Finally she said, "Well, I'm not giving him up without a fight." Olivia just nodded.

"John, it's been a wonderful evening. I don't want it to end," Casey said as they exited the restaurant they'd gone to after the musical.

"It doesn't have to, if you don't want it to," he said.

She smiled at him, and then uttered the classic line, "Your place or mine?"

"Yours," he answered and then hailed a cab. She wondered about the odd expression that had crossed John's face for a moment as he answered her.


	2. Chapter 2

"So how'd you're big date with Casey go?" Fin asked John on Monday morning.

"It was fine," John answered without looking up from doctoring his morning tea.

"Fine! Fine! I happen to know you shelled out a small fortune for the tickets to Spamalot. Where were your seats, like center orchestra or something?" Munch nodded, sipped his tea and headed for his desk. "And I bet you took her some place fancy for dinner too, didn't you?" Again Munch just nodded. "Well?" Fin said exasperated.

"And we went to a nice place for dessert and coffee afterwards," Munch answered.

"You're killing him with the suspense," Elliot said with a laugh.

"Yeah man, get to it. What happened after dessert?" Fin asked.

"Grow up!" John said, tossed the file he'd just opened up down on his desk and left the squad room.

"What's eating him?" Elliot asked.

"I don't know. Maybe the date didn't go all that well. Man, and here I thought he and Casey were really getting serious," Fin said.

Just then Olivia came in, not looking at all chipper.

"What did you guys do to Munch?" she asked, like a mother scolding two siblings for having bullied a third.

"Nothing, just asked him how his big date with Casey went," Fin said defensively.

"Oh great, no wonder he had such a sour expression when I passed him stomping out of the squad just now," she said.

"Wait, do you know something about his date with Casey?" Elliot asked.

"More than I want to," Olivia said with a sigh and sat down at her desk.

"Well, give," Fin said.

"No," Olivia said emphasizing what she said by shaking her head. "If Munch wanted you to know the details of his personal life, he'd have already told you," this time she unconsciously emphasized her point by slamming the desk drawer she'd just opened.

"Looks like you and me are going to have a wonderful day, both our partners are in pissy moods," Fin said to Stabler.

"Let's switch, let them work together today," Elliot suggested.

"Good idea," Fin agreed, "Let's tell Cragen about the swap," he suggested.

Olivia sighed, "Great just what I need, to really be put in the middle of this mess."

Much later in the day, as she and Munch were driving to an address where they were to start the first shift of a stake out for a suspect, she decided she might as well get the inevitable over with, "So you want to talk about it?" she ventured.

"About what?" he asked, dodging the question.

She sighed. "Don't be that way with me, John. We've known each other far too long and helped each other through too much for you to treat me like I'm a prying stranger. Besides I'm already in the middle of this whether I want to be or not."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Alex came to see me the other night, and Casey dropped by this morning," she informed him.

"Well then you don't need me to tell you anything, I'm sure they've filled you in just fine," he said bitterly.

Yeah, well I'd like to hear your side of things," she said hoping that would pry the details out of him from his side of this little melodrama.

"Fine," he said in that way of his that said he was well and truly pissed off, but would comply. "You want my side of things? I was already to take Casey out on a very romantic date, in fact I was planning on giving her this," Munch pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket and deftly opened it with one hand.

"Oh my God John, it's beautiful," Olivia said as she stared at the engagement ring in his hand, and then quickly added. "Why didn't you give it to her? She knew you had it on you, and she was devastated that you didn't give it to her."

"What, how do you know that?" he asked sharply.

"I told you, Casey came by my place this morning. She told me that she felt the ring case in your coat pocket, but then you left without giving it to her and she couldn't figure out what she'd done wrong," Liv explained.

"Oh great," Munch said and hung his head back, before he could say more on the subject, he snapped his head back up, "There's our guy," he said and headed off after the perp.

'Great,' thought Olivia, 'Now I'll never know what's going on with him.'


End file.
